"It doesn't (have the same ring to it)," Zuckerberg admitted, "which I think is partially why it hasn't caught on externally. But by building a stable infrastructure, we allow ourselves to always make sure that we're moving forward, even if we move a little bit slower upfront."

You can see Facebook's newfound maturity in the more traditional way Facebook is rolling out new developments. As Wired reports, the social network will have upgrades scheduled over time and use version numbers seen with operating systems like Windows.

For Zuckerberg, it's the digital equivalent of the old adage a stitch in time saves nine.

"When you build something that you don't have to fix 10 times, you can move forward on top of what you've built," he said.

This stability is particularly important for Facebook's functionality as a "platform." Users don't just come to Facebook to post on their friend's walls; they're also playing games or using Facebook to log into other services. If somebody is going to use Facebook on their smartphone, it's more likely to be via app rather than browser. Thus the need for a stable application programming interface, or API.

"These are real changes that we're making so people can rely on us as a critical infrastructure for building all of their apps across every mobile platform," Zuckerberg says.